NAGRA SNST Made in Switzerland 1977
The SNST is a miniature analog recorder for music recordings. It’s a stereo version of the historical SN “Série Noire” originally ordered
by President JF Kennedy for the American secret services and was even taken to the moon on one of the Apollo missions.
The SN family of recorders has been regarded by many as Nagra’s finest achievement in miniature engineering. Its unique appearance has become instantly recognizable as an icon of Swiss precision. One would really wonder whether the undeniable appeal of the Nagra SNST lies in its mechanical precision and small size or its superb performance.
The Nagra SNST was a high-precision minature audio tape recorder built by Nagra-Kudelski in Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne (Switzerland) from 1970 onwards. It was based on a prototype from the early 1960s and was built to the highest possible Swiss standards. During the Cold War, the Nagra SN was popular at either side of the Iron Curtain: both the CIA and the Stasi loved it.
As the device measures only 14.5 x 10 x 2.6 cm, it could easily be hidden under a person's clothing, making it the ideal companion for inconspicuous (covert) recordings.
As its reputation of superb sonic performance and unrivalled mechanical reliability grew, the Nagra SN became the machine of choice for many security agencies around the world and was even featured in numerous motion pictures both on-camera and as a production tool. Nagra brings this high technology jewel, situated between tradition and innovation, to music lovers.
This is what the SNST is all about, musical emotion and rediscovering the true analog sound.
For many years, the Nagra SN was the most propular professional body wearable audio recorder in the law enforcement scene, but also in the motion picture industry (film) were it was used for recording the actor's voice when shooting a movie. In total, nearly 14,000 units were built by the early 1980s.
NAGRA DSP-1 Play-back amplifier for Nagra SNST
Althoug the Nagra SN was primarily intended for covertly recording conversations, the unit was also capable of playing back a recorded session.
DSP-1 was a small battery-powered audio amplifier that was developed in the late 1970s by Nagra in Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne (Switzerland).
